“Hmm? Another sun rises.”

In the middle of the forest, a childlike figure could be seen. The child was covered with black cloak, leaving trails of blood behind as he walked.

Seeing the sun rising from the east, the boy unsheathed a black sword from his waist and gave his arm a slash.

Ding~ Ding~

Blood flowed out slowly from his red arm, an arm covered by numerous wound. There were 8 distinct wounds pouring blood out of his body. There were only 7 wounds of this kind before he slashed his arm.

“So I’ve already been walking for 8 days, huh?”, he mumbled with a hollow eye. His other eye was dug out.

The kid with a highly unstable mentality was Lucien. He had been walking non-stop for 8 days straight. Every time he saw a sunrise, he would slash his arm to count how many days had passed.

The only rest he had was when the exhaustion symptom occurred to him every two hours. It lasted for around five minutes every time.

He could feel it. The symptom came to him more often as he got stronger. By getting stronger, he meant when his stats grew, skill leveled up and learning more skills.

It was a kind of starvations. His body was craving for something, not food nor drink, but something else. Not blood, of course, he’s not some mad murderer, well, not yet? But, it was a fuel. He needed a special fuel to maintain his power but he didn’t know what is was or where he could find it.

In these past several days, Lucien had not trained nor had he spent his PP. He knew it instinctively that getting anymore stronger would cost him his life.

So he walked, walked and walked, albeit slowly. His body screamed in pain along the the way, however he did not stop. There was not much time left. Not much time… before he would die.

He was already on the verge of going insane, even with his strong mentality and his new skill, Relentless Heart.

Nonetheless, there was no pain shown on his face. He was walking all the way with hollowed eyes, not even a grit of his teeth.

When he was hungry, he ate. There were foods everywhere in the forest, right? fruits, berries, leaves, barks, roots, even soil. He just ate whatever convenience to him.

Encountering monsters, all he did was to look at them in the eyes and those monster would run away. They didn’t even want to eat him seeing how rotten he was. Moreover, the killing intent in his eyes sent chills running down to those monsters’ spines.

Lucien hugged those monsters that didn’t eat him with a heartfelt smile. That smiles was so creepy even in monsters’ artistic sense.

So he walked, walking as he sung, with that childish yet hoarse voice.

What do you want from me, God?~

You send me to the other world, not to make me a protagonist, but to let me suffer~ hm~~~

What do you want from me, God?~

You give me that title, not to save my life, but to have me spent more time in hell~ hmm~~~

What do you want from me, God?~

The same fucking title of yours, not to help me, but to get me chased by everyone~ hmmm~~~

What do you want from me, God?~

Those people pointed their weapons at me, not to kill, but to torture me~ hmmmm~~~

What do you want from me, God?

Now you give me what you call hope, but how much can I believe you, you fucking soap~~~

hmmmm~~~

I will kill you~~~

I will kill you~~~

I will kill you~~~

Fuck you~~~

Singing an off tune yet meaningful song, he reached the border of Panam forest.

In front of him were mountain ranges. Lucien continued to where an arrow was pointing. There was no monster to be seen at all. It’s just like the monsters were scared of this place. Only some harmless monsters like little birds and squirrels were here and there, making this place a paradise.

The arrow led him to the front of the cave nearby and disappeared.

Lightening up the cave with Light Orb, a pair of eyes met him. It was such a beautiful pair. Lucien paused momentarily as he saw a woman in front of him.

The woman was so beautiful with her snow white skin and long light blonde hair reaching her thighs. The wounds and blood over her body couldn’t suppress her radiating beauty.

Those sapphire colored eyes of her seemed to suck his soul out of his body as she looked at him sadly.

“Who did this to you?”, said the woman with a hint of pity in her voice.

Lucien did not open his mouth as he walked towards her, slowly. Each step of his was heavy. Then, he unsheathed his sword, making the woman tilted her neck curiously.

“I killed them.”, said Lucien coldly as he swung his sword right to the woman’s neck.

“You fucking bitch from Abyss.”

And that was the first conversation between the two...

---------------------------------------------------

Clank~

The sword flew away from his hand, making an annoying noise as it hit the ground in the cave.

On the neck of the woman wasn’t even a scratch. Lucien was sure that the girl didn’t move.

‘Well, whatever, this fucking world…’

And he fainted on spot.

The woman quickly caught the boy who suddenly fainted before he hit the ground, not caring about blood on his body.

The boy in front of her could be said to be very ugly. He had burn marks and scars all over his body, so as disgusting yellow liquid from his rotten wounds. One of his eyes was dug out and his hair was all gone, leaving a burned and nerves filled skin. His mouth was only left with a few yellowish teeths.

On his lower body, there was not even a shred of skins left. One could even see his bones on the feet. The muscles were gone but he still walked till here with his sheers willpower.

When the woman checked his internal organs, she found that one of this lungs was gone. Not only that, his organs were randomly swap to different place. His intestines were left with one third and his bones were all broken. It was a miracle this boy was still alive.

Tears started to fell out from the woman’s eyes uncontrollably as he examined the boy.

“Aether Starvation too?”, she whispered.

Recalling the eye of the boy, she felt like her heart was broken. That eye seemed cold from the outside but it was filled with pure, deep, immeasurable sadness and pain.

She hugged the boy as she channeled her power trying to save this boy she had just met…

Thinking of the song he sang and how much despair from that voice, a streak of tear flowed out from her eyes once more as a word left her mouth.

“I’m sorry, little child.”

---------------------------------------------------

In a dark room, a man with a black mask covered his entire face was sitting at the head of the long table. Everyone here was silence, not daring to utter any unnecessary words in the presence of this man.

“Did you find her?”, he said with a deep voice.

One of the men stood up, showing his respect, and said, “Her energy was last spotted in the first floor of Abyss, however we couldn’t pinpoint her exact location, sir!”

“Continue to look for her.” The masked man said, “Although I’ve already sealed her mana and severely injured her so she can’t use her artifact, we can’t leave her alone. Or she will bring us endless trouble.”

“Yes, Sir!”, shouted everyone in the room.

“Go, however, don’t just focus on the first floor as it might be a feint. Send our men to station in second and third floors as well.”, the masked man then stood up.

“It’s not that we are scared of Celestial Worlds. They can’t do anything to us in Abyss but we can’t underestimate them. Who knows how deep their foundation is as the 1st faction since Legas was born.”, he tried to remind his subordinates to not get too cocky but it didn’t seem to be effective at all as all of their eyes were filled with vicious light.

“Well, disperse.” With a wave of his hand he vanished away.

“Hail the Dark Hand!” Everyone shouted as they gradually vanished one by one.